Punch Up the Visuals

With the arrival of HDTV right around the corner, good deals on "old" sets are ripe. I picked up a 60-inch Hitachi Ultravision last year for under US$2,500. It's a monster set, to be sure, and, yes, our 12-by 13-foot family room now looks like an outtake from the upcoming remake of Fahrenheit 451. But it's amazing how you can tweak more performance out of these oldies.

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For $500, you can get a palm-sized videoprocessor from Faroudja – until recently, this trick tech went for $10K. The VP100 uses a proprietary adaptive comb-filter that enhances signal accuracy and detail while eliminating dot crawl. It's a subtle but worthwhile improvement. The room is still too small, but hey, when watching the Habs trounce the Kings in the Stanley Cup playoffs, it's nice to be able to see the whites of their scan lines.

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